Sporting Fingal vs Wexford Youth

Sporting Fingal return to eircom League of Ireland First Division duties on Monday night when host Wexford Youths at Morton Stadium (7.45pm).

Fingal will get a second crack at progressing to the FAI Ford Cup semi-final next week after earning a replay against St. Patrick’s Athletic on Friday with a 3-3 draw at Morton Stadium.

League matters dominate the mind of Sporting manager Liam Buckley this week, as he looks to make the most of advantage against Wexford Youths on Monday and Longford Town next Friday.

“We are still unbeaten at home and that gives us confidence that we can continue our good form in the league this week,” he said.

“I’ve been satisfied with our recent performances; we just need to keep a level of consistency going as we head into the last ten league matches of the campaign.”

He said of Friday’s dramatic FAI Ford Cup quarter-final against the Saints: “We battled back with tremendous guile and determination to score an equaliser with virtually the last kick of the game and that says a lot about the character of the group.”

Defender Brian Kelly has recovered from his back injury to resume training but won’t be available. However, loan players Barry Ferguson, Brendan Clarke and John Frost all return, having missed the Cup tie.

Centre-back Ferguson, on loan from Shamrock Rovers until the end of the season, said: “We’re still in a good position to challenge for the league. If we can get two wins from these pair of home matches against Wexford Youths and Longford Town this week, those six points will put us in a strong position.

“I’ve yet to win a league medal in my career but this is a good opportunity to change that. We’ve been able to keep the pressure on leaders Dundalk and there are still plenty of matches remaining to close the six-point gap.”

Wexford Youths were beaten 2-0 by Fingal earlier in the season in Santry, and Wexford Youths manager Mick Wallace believed his team suffered in that game due to the pitch at the Morton stadium.

"We put in one of our worst performances of the season when we played away to them earlier in the year," Wallace said. "A big part of this I feel was the pitch in Santry, which is very poor. We are spoilt really and used to playing on the best pitch in the league.

"Liam Buckley is a great manager and Sporting play great football. They play the most intelligent football in the Division and we had a great game at home against them a few months back that we lost 1-0.

"Monday's game will be very tough as Sporting are a very good team who are second favourites behind Dundalk to win the league. We have just lost to Longford who are struggling this year so the Fingal game will be very difficult.

"We are missing Patsy Malone through suspension and Conor Wallace is also out and both of these players are a big loss. Conor, who has just turned 18, has been excellent since I introduced him into the senior squad. I'll have a very young team out again."

Extratime.ie Prediction: Sporting had a tough game against Pats last week, but despite that, we still think they will have too much for Wexford Youths. We think they will win 2-0.